Pressley return hints at revival

HEARTS' run of games without a win stretched to eight as a result of this dreary draw, and their most influential players were again well short of their best form. It may therefore not be immediately apparent why anyone connected with the club should feel there are now grounds for cautious optimism, but a look beyond the bare facts of the match does reveal signs of improvement both on and off the field.

These are as yet minor signs, and everything could be thrown into reverse again if Vladimir Romanov resumes his customary capriciousness. For the moment, however, Hearts' majority shareholder is in a more conciliatory mood, as he showed when he met supporters' representatives on Friday night, and as was proven again when the team to play Caley Thistle was announced.

Steven Pressley was back in the team, when only a week earlier some of Romanov's senior executives had been saying the gulf between the businessman and the centre-back had become unbridgeable. So, too, were Robbie Neilson and Takis Fyssas, both of whom have been out of favour recently. The fact that the selection was an uneasy compromise was shown by the continued presence in the side of Saulius Mikoliunas and Nerijus Barasa, but there was at least a sense of greater unity.

Further encouragement for the squad should come at training today, when Valdas Ivanauskas - a spectator alongside Romanov in the main stand on Saturday - resumes his job as head coach. At least as encouraging is the fact that Eduard Malofeev, although still a senior consultant, will no longer have a hands-on role with the first team.

Malofeev has coached two national sides in his long career, so must know a thing or two about the game, but in his half-dozen matches in charge of Hearts he looked not so much out of his depth as out of his decade. The harsh truth is that you do not win matches in 2006 by playing as if it were the 1980s.

Malofeev's team selections and substitutions were baffling enough, but then his tactics introduced further layers of confusion. His addiction to the long-ball game looked ill-suited to the shape or abilities of the side.

Saturday provided a simple example. If you have a five-man midfield and then tell your goalkeeper to punt the ball right up the park, you are bypassing half your side, or at best reducing them to chasing down the opposition.

What was worse, the five men in question exchanged places regularly without any apparent rhyme or reason, and when they were in a recognisable shape it was the wrong one. Julien Brellier, Bruno Aguiar and Paul Hartley are the three strongest midfielders at the club, but when all play together in a line down the middle of the park it pushes Hartley too far forward, into an auxiliary-striker role to which he is unsuited. The difficulty for Hearts is that they have often looked too lightweight when fielding a midfield quartet, which may be why Malofeev thought five in the middle was the answer. The real answer, though, is to find the right four men. To be fair to Malofeev, he may have been discouraged from doing so, as Romanov's enthusiasm for Mikoliunas and to a lesser extent Barasa has to have an influence on team selection. And, whatever Ivanauskas's own preferences are, he could come under the same pressure now he is back as head coach. Romanov said on Friday night that Pressley was "the cement of the team", and he has previously referred to the captain as a coach or manager in the dressing-room. Hearts would not comment on suggestions that Pressley had been or would be offered an official coaching post at the club.

What future Eugenijus Riabovas has at Tynecastle remains unresolved, but it now seems clear that he will not, contrary to what he claimed, be taking over as head coach on 1 December. If Riabovas stays away, the coaching staff will be one down following the departure of John McGlynn to Raith Rovers, so some kind of partial co-option of Pressley would make sense.

Still, even if training at Riccarton becomes a love-in compared to what it has been like in recent weeks, it will surely be a few matches yet, at the very least, before Hearts come close to their best form. Rustiness and uncertainty run right through the side at the moment - with the exception of Craig Gordon, who did more than anyone else to ensure his team claimed a point.

Caley Thistle certainly had most of the clear-cut chances, and produced the highlight of the match in a run from Craig Dargo which finished with the striker shooting just wide. But honours were just about even, and Mark Brown in the home goal had to be at his most alert to save a drive from Paul Hartley with time running out.

A Gordon save from Barry Wilson was the outstanding moment of the first half. Otherwise this was a deeply unmemorable match. Unless it does prove to be the one where Hearts clambered cautiously back on to the right track.


Taken from the Scotsman